Promise

            ‘When the flood had completely gone away, Noah and the animals left the ark. Noah looked up into the sky and saw a rainbow. And then God spoke to Noah. God said, “the rainbow is a sign of my promise to you. I promise that I will never let a storm this big come over the earth again. I love you too much to let that happen. I will be watching over you, protecting you. Every time you see the rainbow, remember that.” . . . Rainbows are reminders of God’s love. They were created as a symbol to tell us that God’s love is just as great as God’s power. God’s love is for each of us, so a rainbow is also a reminder that God will calm the storms in our lives for us if we allow it.’

            This is an excerpt from the talk I gave at the primary school two weeks ago, and I was reminded of it yesterday. It’s been an off week for me. I’m still fighting off the remainder of the cold that I caught last week. Apparently, this was “Make Fun of Megan’s American Accent” week, and nobody told me. (It was funny the first ten times, and those were all on Monday.) I’m kind of in between projects at work, and so I’m doing a fair bit of puttering around the office and planning things that are several weeks ahead, which doesn’t feel like very productive work. All in all, I’ve been a bit frustrated all week.

            And then yesterday, I came back from sitting in on a rather political community development meeting to have lunch at my flat. It was raining vey lightly outside. I sat down in front of the big picture window to eat my sandwich, and then I looked up. A huge, brilliant rainbow had appeared not far away. It ended in the middle of the estate, just behind the church. I was struck by this image of hope – not only for me, but for the entire housing estate that I work in. God’s love is truly still here, just as God has promised.

 

Word of the Week: “Mizzling.” That’s what the rain was doing when I saw the rainbow. The word is a very descriptive cross between “misting” and “drizzling.” Needless to say, it mizzles a lot here.